What Will CB Darius Slay Bring to the Steelers?
With Donte Jackson leaving in free agency and looming durability concerns swirling around Cory Trice, the Pittsburgh Steelers headed into the offseason knowing they needed a boundary cornerback. It seems that they’ve found their match: six-time Pro Bowler and reigning Super Bowl champion, Darius Slay, who has reportedly agreed to a contract with the team.
With 10,876 career defensive snaps, he comes with a bevy of helpful experience under multiple different coordinators. He’s publicly stated on his podcast “Big Play Slay” the he wants to play one more season in the NFL before hanging up his cleats. Finishing up his career in the Steel City will allow him to reunite with former defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, who coached him up when he was just a youngster for the Detroit Lions from 2014-17.
The 36th overall selection in the 2013 NFL Draft didn’t take very long to establish himself as one heck of a cover specialist in the league, but it took until his final season with Austin for Slay to earn his first and only All-Pro nod. After leading the league in pass deflections and interceptions, it felt like the mainstream football observer was catching up to just how good he had become.
Seven years later, while he’s no longer the do-it-all CB1 that would shadow opposing teams’ best playmaker all over the field, the 34-year old enjoyed a nice bounce-back season in Philadelphia last season, helping lead them to Super Bowl ring while exclusively playing left cornerback.
We’ve seen some of the best cornerbacks in the league tail off once they get into their 30s, so you are probably wondering how he’s been able to fend off father time for this long. Slay is a pure technician and the last of a dying breed in a multitude of ways. For starters, he’s super comfortable playing from a backpedal, he stays low, his feet are really light and that allows him to maintain proper cushion while staying square through the route stem.
How Does Darius Slay Fit in the Steelers Defense?
Regardless of his coverage assignment, Slay understands where his help is, where to funnel and how to maintain his leverage. He’s an expert at reading body language of wide receivers, allowing him to anticipate route breaks as they happen, and sometimes even before. His high football IQ often shows up on third down, when squatting at the sticks. Not only are his transitions smooth, he has a little more click-and-close ability than you’d expect given his age, creating enough chances to get into passing lanes. He consistently takes good angles to the ball, times the catch point well when working forward and will play through the hands if his back is to the quarterback.
Ball production has always been a strong point of his game and that continued last season. He forced an incompletion on 20% of his targets in his direction, seventh-best among players at his position with at least 250 snaps, per PFF.
Slay is reliable in zone coverage and will jump on underneath throws after keying the eyes/shoulder of the quarterback. In cloud responsibilities, he’s usually pretty good about getting hands on to re-route receivers before finding work and will rally to the flat and arrive under control as a tackler.
A career 10% missed tackle rate is a respectable number for a player at his position. He passes off routes, properly distributes threats from bunches and stacked formations and his communication skills were part of the reason that the Eagles back seven always seemed connective.
Slay has a next-play mentality to where even if he gets beat one rep, he’ll bounce back with a strong effort immediately and there’s a consistent nature to his demeanor and game overall. His only interception last year came against the Packers in the postseason, staying in phase vertically when isolated on an island.
Cornerback is often referred to as a stopwatch position and Slay’s straight line speed and acceleration is no longer a strength of his game. A good example of this came against the Bengals where Jermaine Burton was able to fly by him down the sideline after Slay was unable to establish contact at the line of scrimmage. Receivers had some success against him using fakes at the top of the route before quickly changing directions, leaving him guessing and unable to recover in time to get back in phase, much less make a play on the ball.
In the half-dozen games I observed, there were a handful of deep shots that certainly could have been completed if not for better quarterback play and/or drops. The most notable weakness in his game right now is that he doesn’t possess the ideal recovery ability to get himself out of compromising situations that you covet for a reactive position such as corner. Slay was not asked to press often last season and most of his worst reps came when closer to the line of scrimmage. Because he often aligned in coverage, there were some underneath freebies allowed in the underneath quick game area, but the cushion did allow him to cap vertical routes for the most part.
Based on the film I’ve observed, there’s no question that Slay’s play was beyond admirable last year for one of the leagues best units last year. The obvious elephant in the room is whether or not he has enough gas in the tank to replicate that success for an additional season as we approach essentially uncharted territory from an age perspective.
Can Darius Slay Fight Off Father Time?
After all, this is the most volatile position on a year-to-year basis and one where scheme matters a ton. If Pittsburgh is his final destination, he’ll be moving from Vic Fangio’s scheme that ranked second in disguise rate according to Field Vision and played man coverage at a below league average rate to Teryl Austin’s more static, single-high coverage matrix. Pittsburgh’s defensive structure can make life hard on cornerbacks, but as long as Slay is allowed to play from depth, there’s a better chance that he’ll be able to hold up as a CB2-type. Of course, that’s assuming that there isn’t further noticeable physical decline, which does seem inevitable and more of a question “when” then “if.”
Levi Wallace, Patrick Peterson and Donte Jackson all struggled in their Steelers transition from zone-heavy defenses, but Slay’s tape is undoubtedly better because he’s more technically sound despite having some athletic limitations. The fit is still a curious one, though. He’s been complimentary of Mike Tomlin in the past when trade rumors first surfaced years ago but Pittsburgh isn’t a contender.
With an unusually deep free agent crop of corners, it seems strange that he would be a primary target early in the free agency period, knowing that this is a one-year stop gap solution when there were a several younger options coming off similar recent stretches of play. Like anything else, it comes down to cost and if Slay continues his play from 2024, he will offer good return on investment. A multi-time elected captain, having him in the meeting room should also be of benefit to Joey Porter Jr. and the rest of the younger players in the secondary.
Odds are, the Steelers will be back in the market again this time next year but for now we wait to see if he can beat the odds yet again.
